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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Churches on Julian Calendar prepare to celebrate Christmas

St. John’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral in

Mayfield.

MAYFIELD — When Joanne Lutz was a little girl, she celebrated Christmas
with her next-door Polish Catholic grandmother, and nearly two weeks
later, again with her Russian Orthodox grandmother.“I had two Christmases from the time I was born,” she said.

Now 67, the Scott Township woman was attending Sunday service at St.
John’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Mayfield with her daughter and
pig-tailed toddler granddaughter. Like her Russian “baba,” she will be
celebrating Christmas with her family 13 days after Dec. 25 — this
Wednesday, Jan. 7.

That is because the Russian Orthodox Church adheres to the older Julian
Calendar, as opposed to the newer Gregorian Calendar, which most of the
western world follows. Introduced by the Roman Empire during the reign
of Julius Caesar, the Julian Calendar has mostly been replaced by the
16th century Gregorian calendar due to its perceived imperfections,
leading to the 13-day difference.

So the service at St. John’s on Sunday was a pre-Christmas service — a
celebration of the direct earthly ancestors of Jesus Christ in
preparation for his birth — rather than a post-Christmas one.
The bishop of the diocese, Nicholas of Manhattan, oversaw the Sunday
service, called a liturgy, bringing with him an ancient icon that was
cut out of a tree in Russia in the 13th century.

The wooden icon, on which the faces of the Virgin Mary, the baby Jesus
and others appeared, was whisked away from Russia after the revolution
in 1920, the bishop told the congregation Sunday.

Straw plays an important part of tradition and celebration of Christmas
at St. George’s Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in Taylor as well.

St. John’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral in

Mayfield.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, members of the church, which also
follows the old calender, but unlike the Russian Church falls under the
Greek Orthodox Church, go caroling.

Dressed in costumes to represent the shepherds who witnessed Jesus’s
birth and wearing baggy pants stuffed with straw, the faux sheep herders
visit homes of other church parishioners. Once there, they sing carols
in the ancient Slavonic language, act out the nativity and leave a bit
of the metaphorical hay, said Kyra Leasure, the daughter of the church’s
pastor and one of the carolers.

Other Eastern Orthodox churches in the area which celebrate the Julian
Calendar include St. Basil’s in Simpson, St. Stephen’s in Old Forge, Ss.
Peter & Paul in Scranton and St. Mary’s in Dickson City, the Rev.
Sorochka said.

The North Pocono Cultural Society will celebrate Russian Christmas on
Wednesday in Moscow, Pennsylvania, with its fourth annual art and
cultural event. Participating businesses on Main, Van Brunt and Church
streets will feature locally made art, jewelry and ethnic food from 6-8
p.m.